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“Something Very Dodgy Going on Here?”

written by Gary_Hughes on 18/02/2013

Should I be surprised or comforted by the shocking number of similar cases to mine that I've found and read on here?

I had a vehicle hired for my company on 28th January following a motorway incident. The vehicle first delivered to my home in North Wales was a Renault Master Van and totally unsuitable for my business needs. It was delivered on Saturday 26th while I was out and I had no opportunity to refuse it until the Monday.

My initial thoughts were quite positive; they found me a replacement VW Passat and I returned the van to collect the car. I thought it was quite odd that they didn't feel it necessary to change the paperwork, and slightly odder that they had an office whip round to find £20 in order to put any fuel in for me to start the hire, but as I work for myself, appointments had already been cancelled and I wanted to reduce any further my disruption. When I was shown to the VW, it had obviously not been cleaned out, but I thought that to be aesthetic and with £20 in the tank, I set off for work to South East England. My damaged vehicle had been transported to a garage in the South East separately.

On Tuesday 29th, work having been completed on my own vehicle, I received a call from the servicing garage and arranged for the collect and return; in exactly the way I had been told to. At 09:00 on Wednesday 30th, I returned the vehicle to the servicing garage and collected my own.

I received a voicemail in the afternoon of 30th, from Enterprise, saying that they couldn't find the keys and asking had I handed them back. I returned the call but after 5 minutes of waiting, I hung up and called the depot from which I had collected the car. They confirmed that the car had now been collected and that everything was fine.

On Saturday 16th February, I received a letter of intimidation from Enterprise 'Damage Recovery Unit'. The letter claims that their vehicle had "unfortunately sustained a change of condition", and basically here is a bill for £250 excess. No consultation, no opportunity to view and agree/disagree, no evidence, nothing; just a bill for £250 and now potentially a scar on my Insurance history. Further, I am threatened with a Debt Collection Company if they are unable to rip the back out of me!! You couldn’t dream this up could you?

Well this is where it changes. I am now taking control back. I have not yet had the opportunity to see if Enterprise has stolen £250 from my credit card, but if they have then this will be going directly to a small claims court. Further, as I have read so many reviews on this site, with amazing similarity to my own, then I will seek legal advice to see if there isn't something more significant going on here. I don't believe in coincidences at this level.

I am also, next phone call, going to advise VW of my concerns (they arranged my hire) and advise them of my intentions. VW will either lose my renewal, or they will take this seriously and conduct a review of their own.